fredag 6 juli 2018

[Context: I'm a Swedish larper turned larp designer and runner. I started in Vampire larp, moved on to Swedish Boffer Fantasy Larp and then started going to Knutpunkt, a Scandinavian larp conference which is often cited as the Nordic Larp Conference. I've worked in mental health for over 10 years and have a master in Library and Information science. I usually prefer to keep the language in these posts to medium level English and avoid long explanations. I know this sometimes make things I write sound harsher than they are meant as I try to just deliver the information and leave reflection and opinions to the discussion of the posts.]

What is Larp Alienation?
When I write Larp Alienation I mean something that happens out of game, to individuals in the Community and not passing experiences of alienation in game. Out of game alienation can however both be felt and manifested during a game, but it is an out of game problem.

Larp Alienation is mostly a feeling of not belonging or being on the outskirts of your larp community no matter your actual status or placement in the community social network. You can have many social strong bonds within the community and still feel alienation from the community. (Subjective feeling of larp alienation)

It can also be a practical problem making it hard to find other larpers to collaborate with for your larp projects, be invited to collaborate with others or get larpers to come to your games due to everything from geographical placement or a subject or form that your community are uncertain about. (Objective larp alienation)

Why is Larp Alienation a problem?

For healthy communities the members need to feel wanted and integrated. They should have their social needs reasonably met. But there is a discreprancy in what people mean and expect when they call something a community. Alienated members of a community can both suffer higher levels of mental health problems and begin to act out in disruptive ways because they already assume they are unwanted by other members.

Game runners most often say they feel can't make anyone happy with their event. Intellectually they know a majority of the players enjoy the game but sometimes feedback from the community in total is confusing and contradictory (due to it coming from different people).
Players who exclusively play larps and don't design or run games are more worried no one will want to play with them at games.

The main theory

My theory on larp alienation is inspired by writing about the Master Suppression technique of The Double Bind. The Double bind punishes and ridicules a person no matter what action they choose to take. No action is "the right action". It is also inspired by social alienation theory, especially that there is a low degree of integration of common values in Nordic Larp and a distance and isolation between individuals in the community. Increasingly so, Nordic Larp and Larp has become a work environment which fluctuates between being a friendship based network dependent on whether people are able to form social bonds (like each other) and a professional network (collaborate on paid larp work).

I pose Larp Alienation happens because Larp and the sub category Nordic larp has few common values globally while at the same time members think they have common values which leads to a miss-match between individual expectations on the community and what the community actually produces for these individuals. I pose Larp Alienation is bigger problem to the parts of the community that does their social relationships online, due to both the exposure to public critizism from people you have both strong and weak social ties to and the distance between the individuals and lower to groups that spend more time together physically.

Larp Creators and Runners also possibly face punishment and ridicule no matter what design choices they make, because there will always be disappointed people expressing their opinions in the online forums of the community. Expression themselves is their right, and many larp runners also appreciate being able to read reactions online, while to others it causes negative emotions.

This can result in feelings of being attacked, that no choice is a good choice, that the best course of action is no action and in the end: larp alienation.

Players feel alienated from the larp creators, and larp creators feel alienated from the players.

Now this double bind happens because there are many different viewpoints in larp critique as we have few to no frame work in place in what constitutes a good larp design. This will then be arbitrary and up to individual tastes. Individual tastes that will be expressed on individual larpers social media accounts.

This is not a problem to many designers, as it has to do with how much weight you put into the public opinions of others.

Larp Alienation at specific games or events

If an individual suffers larp alienation at a larp event there are some things that are possible to do, because many larps these days have a higher degree of integration of the players and game runners often make public before the event what common values will be in effect at the game. Also at a on site larp (as opposed to Digital larp) there will also be less isolation between individuals. Social events can be designed to lessen the degree of larp alienation.

Communicate what common values are wished for, and might be enforced when you come to the game.

Place lone players with other players, so that everyone has a social circle in and/or out of game.

Encourage positive social and inclusive behaviors, even by holding up good examples and letting game runners and volunteers model these behaviors.

Let people help out, especially if they offer, feeling useful and needed is a powerful antidote.

Ask consent before coming with "helpful" advice as some people when feeling alienated can feel attacked even if you are just trying to help.

As a fellow participants, be open to meeting and playing with new people. Like the open chair policy of Knutpunkt.

Check in on your friends (yes, especially the "strong friend")

Alienation Social alienation is "a condition in social relationships reflected by a low degree of integration or common values and a high degree of distance or isolation between individuals, or between an individual and a group of people in a community or work environment". It is a sociological concept developed by several classical and contemporary theorists,The concept has many discipline-specific uses, and can refer both to a personal psychological state (subjectively) and to a type of social relationship (objectively).(1)Master Suppression Technique no 3 "Double Bind"To punish or otherwise belittle the actions of a person, regardless of how they act. (2)Examples:When you describe your larp scenario thoroughly, you receive complaints for having to much materials for the players to read before the game, thus making it less accesible to people from another language background or with reading disabilities. When you post only brief bullet point concepts, you're critiqued for being sloppy, not taking the subject seriously and/or demanding to much previous knowledge from players.

fredag 25 maj 2018

[Disclaimer and context: this is written for Nordic larp, and I as the writer learned to larp specifically in some of the Swedish larp cultures. When looking at the characters I've played a fair deal of them have been antagonists and dedicated to destruction, disruption and punishment of other.]

Have you ever played an evil character and the other player characters end up avoiding you, leaving you sad and alone at the larp?

Or have you planned some really nasty interaction with a co-player and then after the game realizing you both missed out because once in character it felt only logical to avoid the nasty interaction because that is what your character would do?

Here is some information that might help, both on how to proceed as the player of the evil character and how to initiate interaction with evil characters.

So first, some framwork:

Storytelling:In a lot of the storytelling we interact with, there is some protagonist characters, and some antagonist characters. Avenger vs Thanos for example or Sherlock vs Moriaty. In most larps the "evil character" will be the antagonist and try to get in the way of or hinder the progress, wishes and wants of the protagonists.

Social interaction:
I'm going to be talking about making a "Social bid" or answering one. Social bid is something I read about in a article about couples who stay married for a long time and what makes them happy in the relationship (1). That article said it came down to how many social bids they did towards each other each day and if and how they responded to their partners bid. An example can be "oh dear, there is a bluejay in the garden" and the response can either be "that's lovely dear, you love blue jays" (responding) or the partner just going on reading their book (ignoring).
Social bids are very close to so called "play signals" but I think play signals in larp deserve a post of their own. They called this "turning towards" and "turning away". I'm going to call it "answering" and "ignoring" as even a "turning away" can still be "answering" in a larp setting.

This also builds on something Anna-Karin Linder(2) taught me about playing antagonists: One thing you can do to make your character seem less nice and cozy is to avoid giving of these little encouraging sounds to show that you are listening while the other person speaks. Be very conservative with how you express that you are listening.

I try to say that a larp protagonist is never cooler or harder than the level of resistance that they get from the larp antagonist. Sometimes the antagonist isn't a person but nature it self or an opposing army.

Another problem for those of you who are not playing the unpleasant character: sometimes we get a feeling in our gut that we need to stay away from the other player due to their in game behavior. I say it's ok to listen to that feeling but then remind yourself that this is what you are here for. Your character might be scared, but this isn't real. The behavior is only acting and it is an invitation to negative play (type B fun/ type II fun). You came to the larp for this. I sometimes as a player find myself feeling scared of the person who is supposed to play my antagonist, and then I circle away from them. I take a deep breath, remind myself it's not real and then I come up with a reason to go back and "larp in their vicinity". Maybe they are standing close to the coffee? Or they control the in game shop? We can't interact if we are not in the same area.

Some way's to listen as an antagonist:

If you look directly at the other player, don't do so nodding or humming. Hone your cold stare in a mirror. You want your eyes to look dead or at least dispassionate.

Don't accept being talked to just anywhere. Express you expect people to come to you or organize a space to your character liking.

Remember what they are saying, but don't repeat it imediatly. Keep them sweating. Ponder your answer, take things slow.

Remember what they said and use it against them at a later time at the larp. But preferably at that larp, and not the next one.

So now I will go into some social bids with some suggestions on how to initiate them and how to answer them. A problem that sometimes comes it is hard to act on in negative ways when other people are playing their characters as kind or subservient. But there are ways.

"Get them coffee"

The antagonist gets brought coffee. This is a social bid.

Ignoring the social bid: just accept the coffee. Drink it.

Answering the social bid: taste the coffee. Look at the person delivering it. Either say something with words about the coffee or with your face. Dump the coffee in front of the person. Look them in the eye.

"Serve them dinner"

Everyone is supposed to stand in line for dinner.

The antagonist instead sits down that their favorite spot at the table, looks at someone and tells them to bring them dinner. This is a social bid.

Ignoring the social bid: either not answering at all or giving them food without any invitation to further interaction.

Answering the social bid: bring them their dinner either perfectly organized or messy and unappetizing. Serve them in a clearly submissive way or if you wish to be provocative, plonk it down hard in front of them.

"the knowing insult"

For common interaction, casual conversation gone bad.

Social bid: a protagonist states liking/disliking a phenomenon or action. "I don't like when you tell me what to do"

Answering the social bid: Move in close and, depending on physical interaction rules of the larp grab them a bit to hard on the wrist or other neutral body part. Stand in their personal space and look them in the eye. Calmly reflect what they said either enforcing or contradicting it "Oh but I think you actually do like it." Give them your full attention. To do intimate things like this it is best if you have read up on their character.

P.S Avoid playing a psychopath. I often say that psychopaths are boring characters. Because while we often play them as evil, if they do not have wants, needs and emotions of their own there will be no emotional resonance to play them either. People can be harsh, cold, violent and manipulative without being psychopaths or sociopaths.

tisdag 8 maj 2018

For different reasons I was thinking I'm suffering a block against bragging about my artistic accomplishments and my skills. Not about showing them one by one, but all of them together.

The set up:
I've been having bad moods late at night when I'm tired, and sometimes my mood is so bad that I have trouble falling asleep before really hashing the issue over with a friend in private. Sometimes on chat and sometimes on phone. It's mostly negative talk and I mostly do it with my male friends because I don't want to dump on women who usually have to do the majority of emotional labor anyway and I have some guy friends who have had to share the burden instead. I try to not feel bad about doing this as I have supported them as well from time to time and they want to be good at emotional labor.

The problem:
I don't want to be this negative. I don't think it's good for me and I don't think it's good for my communities. Also negativity says very little about what I want to do about the problem I see and about the way we can move forward. If I instead could point at good examples, at how I solve problems and model good enough problem solving design for larps and other event then others can learn from me.

The goal:
I want to find joy again and I want to look forward to happenings and be exited about my own projects and other peoples projects. And I know so many creative people and I'm creative myself. Also, if I'm able to talk about what I'm good at and find joy from I will be asked to do more of what I'm good at. If I get to do what I'm good at other people will gain benefit from that as well. And it will also keep me from being destructive and disruptive.

How?
So how do I inform others about what I'm good at? And what I find joy in doing? Is that bragging? Is that ok? I sometimes see people with way less skill or experience than me promote themselves with very big words in the community. I think it's both a case of gendered expectations (men should be confident in their abilities, women should be humble) and of different cultural spheres and expectations.I'm scared of the criticism, the "she just wants attention" and the "she thinks she's so good but she sucks" the "she's so full of herself". I will have to think about this for some time. I don't know what I will arrive at.

måndag 30 april 2018

[Disclaimer: I work within a Swedish context. I'm mostly writing this post to get my thought down and onto the internet, in case this becomes a discussion further on. I'm not writing this to harm or criticize individuals. These are just my observations and even if I have a very straight forward language I am almost always open to being wrong. No observation I make will ever account for all cases.]

I sometimes get the impression that male larp organizers mainly organize their games with men they "drink beer with" (socialize in a public or semi public setting, drinking alcoholic beverages). Women can be part of this group under a flag of being "one of the boys".
They also organize with women they have a close, sometimes even intimate relationship and once in a while they organize together with a woman who they find to be absolutely brilliant.
But to find a woman they don't drink beer with or have a close relationship with absolutely brilliant they also have to be reminded of her again and again and how good she is at what she does. Maybe she has a lively larp related Instagram? Maybe they are friends on Facebook? Maybe she is involved in several other larp projects this year? She must also not be scared of self promoting herself, something women are often not used to and sometimes think is shameful.

If you find you are a male organizer who might be in this pattern here are some suggestions:

Look around at who is active or about to go active in your neighborhood. At least ask them if they are interested in collaborating.

Take risks with collaborating with young women and non-binary people. Under 25, or with no larp organizing experiences?

Actively ask women and non binary people if they have any ideas or are already starting their own larp projects?

If your female and non binary friends are working away at their project, be the first one to contact them and ask once in a while how it's going. Larp organizers needs emotional support and you know this.

If you are methodical person, make a private inventory of "who you know" in your local larp scene. Look at how many are women/ non binary? What are they up to at the moment?

When you look at your social patterns and where you connect with people, are those arenas that are accessible to the people you want to organize with, or just to some kinds of people?

A male friend of mine (I can name you if you like) said that the project of organizing a larp can be used as an excuse to hang out and have an experience together. The larp organizing project helps you fulfill your emotional needs and need for feeling like a part of a community working towards a common goal. Instead of going "I like you and would like to spend more time together" - you organize a larp.

I have this theory that you can also sometimes choose to organize larps with people you already feel emotionally close with. Because you got drunk together and you became more social and outgoing and came up with a project to do together. Or maybe oxytocin played in?

I'm not saying this is the wrong way to organize larps, we organize in different ways, but sometimes our methods doesn't wield the results we wish for and maybe an inventory of who we organize with can show us other ways to do it?

Next thought: If you are a woman setting out to organize a larp, who do you ask? If you are non-binary, has that affected who you ask?